Climate change is costing us USD 16 million per hour: Study

Climate change and global warming are words that are tossed, often carelessly, in our everyday conversations. So much so that the real danger for humankind they encapsulate is often overlooked and forgotten.

Findings of a new study may be another wake-up call for us to sit and seriously think about something that can jeopardise our very existence on the only planet we call home.

The study, as reported by The Guardian, is the first to calculate the global cost directly attributable to human-caused global warming. It reportedly said that we paid an average cost of USD 140 billion each year between 2000 and 2019 as a result of global warming. The latest data reveals that the cost was USD 280 billion in the year 2022. Due to lack of data from many countries, especially from low-income countries, means that the number may be much higher. Also, aspects such a climate cost incurred due to decline in crop yields and sea level rise was not included.

The study has also found that over two decades, 1.2 billion people have been affected by climate crisis.

Two-third of the damage costs were due to lives that were lost. The third was due to destruction and other assets being destroyed.

According to the researchers, their methods can be used for calculating funding that was needed for loss and damage fund which was established at the United Nations’ climate summit in 2022. The fund is intended for recovery from extreme weather events in poorer countries.

“The headline number is $140bn a year and, first of all, that’s already a big number,” said Prof Ilan Noy as quoted by The Guardian. Prof Noy is from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He carried out the study with colleague Rebecca Newman.

“Second, when you compare it to the standard quantification of the cost of climate change [using computer models], it seems those quantifications are underestimating the impact of climate change.”

Noy noted that there was no data of people killed or of economic damage caused due several extreme weather events.

“That indicates our headline number of $140bn is a significant understatement,” he said.

As an example, he said that heatwave death data was available only in case of Europe.

“We have no idea how many people died from heatwaves in all of sub-Saharan Africa.”